Scott G. Bruce explore l'histoire de la religion et de la culture du haut Moyen Âge et du Moyen Âge central. Ses recherches se concentrent sur le monachisme, l'hagiographie et la poésie latine, avec une spécialisation dans l'histoire de l'abbaye de Cluny. Bruce examine les formes de communication et d'expression au sein de la vie monastique de cette époque. Son travail met au jour des dimensions souvent méconnues de la spiritualité et de la pratique médiévales.
Exploring the rationale behind religious silence in early medieval abbeys, this book delves into the nonverbal communication methods used by monks, particularly at the Abbey of Cluny. It highlights how these monks developed a unique system of hand signs to convey specific meanings while adhering to silence. The text examines the spiritual advantages of silence, the training of novices in this silent language, and the precautions against its misuse. Additionally, it discusses the spread of this practice across Europe, leading to various regional adaptations.
From the Hebrew Bible's shadowy realm of Sheol to twenty-first-century visions
of Hell on earth, this book takes us through three thousand years of eternal
damnation. Drawing upon religious poetry, epics, theological treatises,
stories of miracles, and accounts of saints' lives, this fascinating volume of
hellscapes illuminates how Hell has long haunted us, in both life and death.
"Two thousand years of legend and lore about the menace and majesty of dragons, which have breathed fire into our imaginations from ancient Rome to Game of Thrones A Penguin Classic The most popular mythological creature in the human imagination, dragons have provoked fear and fascination for their lethal venom and crushing coils, and as avatars of the Antichrist, servants of Satan, couriers of the damned to Hell, portents of disaster, and harbingers of the last days. Here are accounts spanning millennia and continents of these monsters that mark the boundary between the known and the unknown, including: their origins in the deserts of Africa; their struggles with their mortal enemies, elephants, in the jungles of South Asia; their fear of lightning; the world's first dragon slayer, in an ancient collection of Sanskrit hymns; the colossal sea monster Leviathan; the seven-headed "great red dragon" of the Book of Revelation; the Loch Ness monster; the dragon in Beowulf, who inspired Smaug in Tolkien's The Hobbit; the dragons in the prophecies of the wizard Merlin; a dragon saved from a centipede in Japan who gifts his human savior a magical bag of rice; the supernatural feathered serpent of ancient Mesoamerica; and a flatulent dragon the size of the Trojan Horse. From the dark halls of the Lonely Mountain to the blue skies of Westeros, we expect dragons to be gigantic, reptilian predators with massive, bat-like wings, who wreak havoc defending the gold they have hoarded in the deep places of the earth. But dragons are full of surprises, as is this book"-- Provided by publisher
